MIS Experts: The Job is Very Demanding

Mohammad Amir, an MIS (Management Information Systems) professional, in a popular insurance company, does the number crunching to calculate the value addition to his company's coffers by its fleet of sales professionals. For this he has to assess the quantum of sales they crack in a day and in a week to reach the monthly, quarterly and annual figures and compare those with the additional costs incurred by the team.

This data is collated and later analysed by the top management, and policy-level decisions are made on its basis. Such decisions might lead to hiring of new staff or firing of some of the existing workforce.

Crucial data collection and analysis, therefore, is the responsibility of an MIS professional. Amir has had previous work experience with the call centre of a travel portal and an infotech company. Though one job profile contrasted strikingly with the other, his work has required him to constantly use his skills in MS-office, Oracle, ERP software (SAP-BI) and PowerPoint to present the data gathered in a useable format.

At the call centre, Amir used to organise data related to the flow of phone calls, including the number of calls made in different time slots (morning, afternoon and evening), the average time taken by each employee on one call and the time taken by each employee to make notes after completion of a call.

After data collection comes analysis and forecasting of future trends - some of which is also handled by MIS professionals. "We compare the figures of two quarters or two financial years to reach certain conclusions as reflected by the figures," says Amir.

MIS is critical to the performance of a company and each department hires at least one or two people to carry out this work. "It's data crunching from different angles, which gives the true picture of a company graphically (read statistically). The MIS function throws up interesting findings. At times, the company might discover that the activity on which it allocates 70 per cent of its expenses, brings in just 20 per cent of revenues," says Sunil Goel, director, Global Hunt India, an executive search company.

A company's strategic decision-making team and MIS have a symbiotic relationship. No wonder these data organisers, at times, also rise to the senior ranks of planning and strategy. "Any graduate can become an MIS professional and what matters more than qualifications are the skills. Later they can also rise to managerial ranks if they have the right skills and abilities," says Sanjeev Agrawal, VP, operations, heading the MIS team at Impetus Technologies, Inc.

One of the downsides of this profession is that it does not employ a huge number of people. "An organisation with 1000 employees typically would have four to five people working in the MIS function," adds Agrawal.

Since MIS professionals employ IT tools to analyse data, they must have a working knowledge of computers and their applications. "Some profiles can be very technical so one should have an infotech background but normally one ought to have domain expertise in finance or marketing," says Ashim Raj Singla, assistant professor teaching ERP (enterprise resource planning) at IIFT (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade), Delhi.

The job is very demanding but can at times offer some scope for creativity. "There are certain standard processes but some applications are built internally within the organisation. The MIS professional must look for the smartest way to arrange the data which makes sense to the management," says Padmaja Ravishankar, head of information systems, 24/7 Customer, a BPO.

The job comes with huge responsibilities. One small omission can distort all calculations, casting a shadow over the vital figures of a company. "Once, while I was calculating the projected sales of a certain month, I inadvertently, added the sales on a day that happened to be a gazetted holiday. That inflated the sales figures, sending the entire management into a tizzy," says Akshay Bhatt, an MIS professional in a media company. "You need to have a sound analytical mind, it is not a vanilla job after all," adds Sunil Goel.